Limestone Look Tiles for Less
Natural stone pavers are having a moment right now – You can see this style in many designers’ work – like Amber Lewis, Studio Mcgee, and Jean Stoffer. Exquisite Surfaces is a common designer source, known for their stunning limestone tiles. Unfortunately for us common folk, natural stone comes at a premium cost – I’m talking upwards of $30/sq ft. So obviously when I was hunting for tile for our 250+ sq ft laundry room, this was way out of the budget. Lucky for you, I spent what felt like an eternity hunting for the perfect lookalike tile, so you don’t have to! Before I share the best limestone look tiles for less, let’s talk a little bit about the characteristics of natural stone tile and what to look for in a porcelain lookalike.
Organic Shape
Modern organic interior design is very popular right now. And for a good reason, it is beautiful! With this design style we are seeing a lot of wood tones, soft lines, and natural stone. Common stone varieties we are seeing with this style are limestone, honed or tumbled marble, and travertine. Something these stone varieties have in common are natural and often irregular shapes. No two tiles are exactly the same and the edges are “tumbled” or gently rounded. This feature makes them look softer and more organic than a typical sharp edged tile, which are found in more modern design styles.
Texture
Along with the organic shape, these tiles usually have a slight to moderate textured surface. Not only does this give a beautiful appearance and feel, it makes these tiles very practical. The texture provides a natural anti-slip surface, making them perfect in bathrooms, mudrooms, and kitchens – anywhere with water really.
Colour
These tiles can range anywhere from off-white, beige, brown, grey, to black. My preference is somewhere in the mid-beige/taupe colours. There is often a lot of colour variation within the tiles and between the tiles which adds extra interest and dimension. This is also a good reason to obtain multiple samples of tile because a single tile may not be a good representation of all of the tiles if there is a large variation among the lot.
Shade Variation
Natural stone tiles are inherently 100% unique. No two tiles will be the same. With porcelain tile, the design is printed on the tile and there is going to be repetition. However the extent of the repetition of colour varies depending on the tile. This is known as Shade Variance. Many tile companies will use a scale to indicate how much variance is within a box of tiles:
- V1 = Uniform Appearance – Very minimal differences in shade.
- V2 = Slight Variation – Some differences in shade and/or texture
- V3 = Moderate Variation – Colours on one tile generally represent the colour of all the tiles however the number of colours on individual tiles will vary significantly
- V4 = Substantial Variation – Very random colour differences among tiles, each tile will be unique.
Maintenance
Another big difference between natural stone and porcelain tile is the maintenance. I’ve talked about caring for marble before here and natural stone tile is similar. Sealing your stone on a regular basis is important to ensure it doesn’t get stained. Additionally, cleaning natural stone can be a bit harder because it is porous and holds onto grime. Porcelain, being a printed, non-porous surface, is much easier to clean in general. It does not require sealing and is pretty in-destructible.
I used this MAPEI pre-mixed grout in the colour Biscuit. Even though it is a lighter shade, it is really easy to clean and we haven’t had any issues with staining.
Limestone Look Tile For Less
I feel like I hunted forever to find the perfect limestone look tile for less. I had pretty strict size and budget constraints which made it even trickier.
I landed on the MSI Brickstone because it came in the perfect size (5″x10″), had a lot of variation, rounded/irregular edges, and the price was right – under $7/sq. foot!
These photos show Ivory on the left and Taupe on the right. Both are beautiful and truly give the look of a limestone tile for so much less.
And if these don’t meet your criteria, a lovely follower sent me photos of a tile she found here that also gives the look of natural stone. It is a bit more expensive but it comes in lots of sizes, including larger sizes (up to 16″x24″)! You can see more colourways here as well as a photo of the Grigio Natural colour below.
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Believe it or not, the first three photos above are ALL the same colour “Ivory” – Just another reason it is so important to order samples!
Hi Jyll! Thank you so much for sharing this amazing find, I just ordered it along with the grout that you recommended. I was wondering if you remembered what size grout lines you did? I love your look! Thanks 🙂
I’m so happy to help! We used 1/8″ spacers. The tile edges are slightly irregular so keeping our grout lines straight was a bit tedious, however the 1/8″ spaces gave us a bit more wiggle room to adjust when necessary. You could go up to 1/4″ however that will use a lot more grout!